Ad of the Day: Airbnb Builds Birdhouse Versions of 50 of Its Most Intriguing Listings

It's the allure of Airbnb, but also its biggest stumbling block—its rental listings are not impersonal hotel rooms but actual people's homes. Some travelers embrace this, knowing they'll experience a private space that's naturally more interesting and personalized. Others—well, they'd say that staying in a stranger's house is a little bit creepy, isn't it?

In its first integrated national campaign, the self-described "community-driven hospitality company" naturally embraces the broader definition of "home"—i.e., anybody's home can be your home, too, if you have a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world.

Pereira & O'Dell in San Francisco communicates this creatively by using the metaphor of migratory birds, who call many places home. The agency had artists build birdhouse versions of 50 of the most intriguing Airbnb listings worldwide, and is displaying them from today through Sunday in New Orleans at Audubon Park's Tree of Life.

This agency, which excels at long-form feel-good video—look no further than its Skype campaign—shows off the project in the clip below, which mixes footage of the birdhouse construction with voiceover mediations on the emotionally expansive nature of travel. "What makes a home feel like a home to you?" a man asks. "When someone's individuality and personality is reflected in the design of a house," a woman replies. Each Airbnb listing is presented not merely as a property but as a story—which it surely is. (Just don't ask about the horror stories.)

Appealing to a sense of adventure and creativity is smart. And the birdhouse idea, if a little precious, meshes conceptually with the one-of-a-kind nature of the listings. Footage of all the sketching and building also provides a canvas on which Pereira & O'Dell can work up an emotional piece of film—bringing in songwriter Zach Shields to sing his song "Home to You" in a somewhat random but rousing finale.

"We created these birdhouses inspired by real Airbnb homes and the accompanying film as a metaphor for the hospitality about which our company is built," says Amy Curtis-McIntyre, CMO of Airbnb. "Our hospitality is completely individual and designed by our hosts who know that making people (or birds!) feel at home anywhere in the world comes from warmth, intuition and an attention to detail. We love the world's real travelers, and this is an invitation to travel in a new way."

It's the allure of Airbnb, but also its biggest stumbling block—its rental listings are not impersonal hotel rooms but actual people's homes. Some travelers embrace this, knowing they'll experience a private space that's naturally more interesting and personalized. Others—well, they'd say that staying in a stranger's house is a little bit creepy, isn't it?

In its first integrated national campaign, the self-described "community-driven hospitality company" naturally embraces the broader definition of "home"—i.e., anybody's home can be your home, too, if you have a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world.

Pereira & O'Dell in San Francisco communicates this creatively by using the metaphor of migratory birds, who call many places home. The agency had artists build birdhouse versions of 50 of the most intriguing Airbnb listings worldwide, and is displaying them from today through Sunday in New Orleans at Audubon Park's Tree of Life.

This agency, which excels at long-form feel-good video—look no further than its Skype campaign—shows off the project in the clip below, which mixes footage of the birdhouse construction with voiceover mediations on the emotionally expansive nature of travel. "What makes a home feel like a home to you?" a man asks. "When someone's individuality and personality is reflected in the design of a house," a woman replies. Each Airbnb listing is presented not merely as a property but as a story—which it surely is. (Just don't ask about the horror stories.)

Appealing to a sense of adventure and creativity is smart. And the birdhouse idea, if a little precious, meshes conceptually with the one-of-a-kind nature of the listings. Footage of all the sketching and building also provides a canvas on which Pereira & O'Dell can work up an emotional piece of film—bringing in songwriter Zach Shields to sing his song "Home to You" in a somewhat random but rousing finale.

"We created these birdhouses inspired by real Airbnb homes and the accompanying film as a metaphor for the hospitality about which our company is built," says Amy Curtis-McIntyre, CMO of Airbnb. "Our hospitality is completely individual and designed by our hosts who know that making people (or birds!) feel at home anywhere in the world comes from warmth, intuition and an attention to detail. We love the world's real travelers, and this is an invitation to travel in a new way."